Jessie's Arbok (Japanese: ムサシのアーボックMusashi's Arbok) was the first PokémonJessie appeared with in Kanto; she received it as a chūgen gift (in the dub, it was a birthday gift).
Although Arbok lost nearly every battle, as is traditional for Pokémon owned by Team Rocket, it has occasionally been shown to have extraordinary power and endurance to match its massive size. For example, in The Misty Mermaid, Arbok was able to single handedly battle Horsea, Starmie, Squirtle and Seaking underwater (where water Pokémon have the advantage) without the help of Weezing, enduring a huge amount of offense and eventually cornering all its opponents for the victory before Seel evolved into Dewgong and defeated it with Ice Beam.
Jessie used Arbok as her main battling Pokémon throughout most of the series up until Advanced Generation, a role which was taken over by Seviper. Jessie also used it during the Princess Festival.
In A Poached Ego!, Team Rocket found a poacher holding a herd of Ekans and Koffing captive in Hoenn. After freeing them, James and Jessie reluctantly ordered Arbok and Weezing to stay in the wild and guard their fellow Pokémon. The two Pokémon have not been seen since.
Jessie and Arbok shared a close bond, as demonstrated when Arbok refused to leave her at first and cried when it finally did.
Personality and characteristics
Arbok and Weezing seem to be both very emotional. This was first shown in Island of the Giant Pokémon, where they got very sad for being separated from Jessie and James, crying desperately, with Pikachu trying to cheer them up. At the end of the episode, when every lost Pokémon got reunited with their partners, Ekans and Jessie, along with James and Koffing, were happily crying, while Ash was only smiling with Pikachu, which may mean that Jessie's bond with Arbok was stronger than Ash's bond with Pikachu. It was also in this episode that it explained to Meowth along with James's Koffing "Pokémon do bad things because master bad. Pokémon not bad." In Lights, Camera, Quacktion both Arbok and Weezing got depressed for being rejected as the main characters in the movie. It was only with Jessie's and James's help that they got over it. On their last appearance, in A Poached Ego!, they were reluctant in leaving Jessie and James, and when they did, they strongly cried.
Arbok is depicted on a photograph on the box art for Pokémon Zany Cards, along with Wobbuffet and Weezing. However, it does not make an appearance in the game.
A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.
Trivia
Jessilina and her Arbok-shaped flute
Arbok's arrow-like pattern on its neck differs in some episodes. Sometimes, the ends of the arrow stretch until the ends of its eye-like patterns on its chest and is only a few inches wide. Similarly, there are two red dots on its arrow in some episodes and in other episodes there are none.
In The Misty Mermaid, Jessie's Arbok was shown to be able to swim without the need for air.
In Jessie's room in Where No Togepi Has Gone Before!, an Arbok's head can be seen as part of her bed's design. During her Contest performance in Yes, in Dee Dee It's Dawn!, Jessie uses an Arbok-shaped flute. These two are possibly paying homage to her former Pokémon.
Its gender was hinted in the Japanese version of Island of the Giant Pokémon. In the subtitles, it refers to itself and Koffing as おれたち ore-tachi, which is a pronoun normally used by males meaning "we", also used by characters such as Ash, Brock and James in the Japanese version.
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Ekans and Arbok.
